Wes has been taken over by Samarra! This is really bad. With Wes under Samarra's control, the strongest trainer in Agate Village, if not the entire Orre Region, is on the side of the villains now! Will our heroes be able to stop him? Even if everyone who still had pokemon that could fight banded together to take him down, they might not have a chance. But what are the others doing? Let's check in with them before we look at how bad this situation has become for everyone.
Aakareo Kokokuhikari: "Well… fuck" is a very good description of what's happening right now, yes, that would be accurate.
KedharS: Gotta have that "all is lost" moment in any story, right? Hopefully things won't be so bad.
Venoms Cross 2: We really need his help right now, that's for sure.
Hyphenman: Yeah, Cynthia really relied on her Breloom a lot early on. Thankfully she's been working on that now that more of her pokemon are capable of holding their own in a fight.
Tambry96bj: In terms of strength, Wes is a lot more powerful than a pawn. Things are going to get really difficult now.
Pokemon Academy: Beginning of Beginnings
Chapter 1175
Samarra had taken possession of Wes and made him one of her friends. This could be seen as a major turning point of sorts for this "war" she was fighting in Agate Village. But in the other parts of town where battles were being fought, no one was aware of how bad the situation had become. They were too busy with their own battles.
"Well?" Darla asked, narrowing her eyes. Her Salamence was crouched beside her, glaring ferociously at Lana. "Are you going to send out your next pokemon?"
Darla was in no mood to play around. Her opponent had tried to hurt Lila, and for that, she would show no mercy.
"Yeah, go Darla! You can show her!" Lila cheered.
"Don't worry," Darla assured her partner with a confident smile. "I won't let anything happen to you, Lila. I promise."
Lila blushed with glee.
"…Uh, thanks for saving me, too, by the way," Giselle mumbled. She was completely forgotten by the two girls.
"Sari, go," Lana said, sending out her next pokemon to replace the Flygon she'd recalled.
"Sneasel," Sari growled, raising her sharp claws and glaring at Crescent.
"An Ice type to handle a dragon, could you be any more predictable?" Darla scoffed. "Crescent, use flamethrower!"
"Salamence!" Crescent opened his mouth wide and a stream of red flames bathed over the field, heading straight for Sari.
"Snea!" Sari growled, ducking under the flames and dodging with her agility. She raised her claw and created several large chunks of ice in the air around her.
"Ice shard," Lana ordered. The ice flew towards Crescent and smashed against his scaly hide, injuring the dragon.
"Playing dirty, huh?" Darla growled. She shielded herself from the ice as well, as if she were connected to Crescent and feeling the same things he was. That was an unnerving thought for Lila, so she quickly checked to make sure her worst fears weren't occurring.
"Darla… you aren't using Dragon Force, right?" She asked worriedly.
Darla flinched. "Wh-What? No, I'm not. But-"
"Good," Lila sighed with relief, her body relaxing. "I'm afraid that… if you use something like that, well… you'll get really injured, so…"
Dragon Force was a powerful skill, but it wasn't something Darla could use freely. It had a major backlash on her body. If people thought that the fatigue and exhaustion that came as a consequence of harmonia was hard to deal with, Dragon Force was all that and more.
Darla knew that, of course. Far better than Lila ever could. But unlike her friend, she had no illusions of what it might take to defeat a trainer of Lana's level. Oh, certainly, it would be nice if she could take Lana down without having to worry about activating her Dragon Force, but she wasn't going to slam the door on the possibility, either.
…
…But Darla couldn't bring herself to tell Lila that.
She sighed and hung her head. I guess I won't use it unless it's absolutely necessary, she decided. As if that wasn't already going to be the case.
Lila's worrying could get pretty annoying sometimes.
"Crescent!" She called to her Salamence, returning her attention to the battle. "That Sneasel is too fast for us right now! Let's use our dragon dance!"
"You don't think I'd let that happen, do you?" Lana snapped. "Sari, taunt!"
"Sneasel!" Sari smirked, beckoning at Crescent with her claws. Her eyes were goading the Salamence to attack and he couldn't resist, letting out a furious roar and flapping his wings, sailing over the battlefield to attack Sari.
"Ugh, of course," Darla groaned. Crescent fell for taunts ridiculously easily because he was so easy to enrage.
"Even if you are in the Appeals Course, everyone knows what you're capable of!" Lana snapped. "We all saw you in the Phantom Cup, trashing everything with those dragons of yours! You think I'm going to let you get off a dragon dance and make things even more difficult?"
"Girl, you haven't even seen difficult," Darla said, narrowing her eyes. "Come on, Crescent, if she's not going to let us boost our stats then we'll just have to rampage with what we've got, right?"
"Salamence!" Crescent nodded in agreement, sparks flying out of his nostrils. He flapped his wings and opened his mouth wide, firing an even bigger burst of flame at the Sneasel.
"Sari, protect!" Lana ordered. Sari crossed her claws over her chest in a defensive posture, and a dark barrier rose up around her, deflecting the flames.
"…Cute," Darla said, her eye twitching. When your opponent used protect, the smart thing to do was have your pokemon raise their own stats with status moves while they waited for the barrier to drop, because there was nothing they could do to break through it.
But that trick didn't work here, thanks to the taunt. All Crescent could do was attack. Which meant just wasting PP, and Darla wasn't interested in doing that.
"Crescent, just circle around and wait for her to come out of there," Darla ordered. "And get ready to strike with everything you've got!"
"Salamence!" Crescent nodded in agreement, his eyes burning with anticipation as he waited for Sari to make herself vulnerable.
The barrier finally dropped and Crescent saw his opportunity.
"Use rock slide!" Darla ordered.
Lana smirked.
"SALAMENCE!" Crescent roared, flapping his wings and ripping stones out of the ground beneath him. He sent them tumbling towards Sari in an avalanche of rock and earth. But Sari was moving so fast it was blinding. She leapt from rock to rock with incredible speed, as if the attack wasn't even there, and in seconds she was right in front of Crescent. She pulled back her claw and hit him in the jaw with a sucker punch.
"We weren't just hiding behind that barrier," Lana said. "Sari was preparing a sucker punch. And since all your Salamence can do is use his attacking moves, it worked perfectly. What do you think, Darla? Unlike that brute strength of yours, I'm capable of using my noggin!" She tapped the side of her head with a smug grin on her face, much to Darla's chagrin.
"Hey! That's not fair!" Lila shouted. "Darla's trying her best! Sure, she might not be the smartest trainer out there-"
"HEY!" Darla exclaimed.
"…But she's definitely got the biggest heart!" She finished.
"Lila, YOU'RE the dumb one!" Darla snapped.
"…Oh, right. Whoopsie!" Lila stuck her tongue out and rattled her knuckles against her skull, smiling sheepishly. She'd completely forgotten about her character for a second due to the life and death struggle they were in.
Lana rolled her eyes.
"Whatever. It doesn't matter. Even if you do have her cheering for you, that won't make a difference. Your destructive dragons are powerful, there's no denying that, but I'm confident that I can take you down."
"Yeah, that's my girl!"
A flinch shook Lana and she flushed with shame.
Kiana was cheering for her little sister even more passionately than Lila was cheering for Darla. And it was embarrassing!
"Kiana, what are you doing?!" She demanded, turning to the older woman. "I've got this covered, I don't need you here!"
"Come oooonn!" Kiana wailed. "I don't have any pokemon of my own, so this is the only way I can help Samarra! Just let me cheer for you! I wasn't able to do anything on the school trip as your chaperon, nobody listened to me! It wasn't fair! You all wanted to do your own thing, it was like I wasn't even there!"
Darla stared in dumb shock as one of Samarra's puppets broke down crying while her little sister cradled her face in her hand and shook her head in shame.
"I-I wanted to be one of those cool grownups! The type who all the kids like! I figured since I was still young enough, people would listen to me and treat me like the cool big sister they always wanted! But what's up with your group?! You were a bunch of weirdoes! That white-haired guy didn't act anything like a high schooler! And that blue-haired girl was like a robot! Then there was that short girl with her creepy science experiments, and that mean blonde girl who treated everyone like they were trash… Gabrielle was so cold to everyone, and that Keahi guy, who wanted to be called K?! Who does that?! What sort of arrogant douchebag wants to go by a single letter name?! That guy Rafe said he was responsible and trustworthy but he wandered off whenever I took my eyes off him! That guy with the glasses was a rude jerk who always acted like he was better than everyone, and worst of all there was a ninja! Like, an actual fucking ninja! He was dressed like a ninja and everything, and nobody even gave him a second glance! Like seeing a ninja walking around was fucking normal, and I was just supposed to accept it without even thinking about it?! What sort of weirdo did they take me for, huh?! This was supposed to be my chance to see how well you were getting along with everyone, and all it told me was that your classmates are a bunch of weirdoes! I tried, I really tried, and look what happened! Now we're here doing god-knows-what for Samarra and I don't know if I even want to be friends with these people! And you won't even let me cheer for you?!"
Lana hung her head in embarrassment as she listened to her sister rant. This was the most humiliating experience of her life.
"So, uh… are we battling, or…?" Darla wasn't really sure what she was supposed to say to all that. "…Whatever. Crescent, flamethrower."
"Salamence." Crescent fired a blast of flame at Sari, who was getting caught up in Kiana's drama just like her sister.
"Sneasel!" Sari cried, just barely managing to jump out of the way in time.
"Hey!" Lana shouted, whipping her head around. "My sister was having a moment!"
"WE are having a battle!" Darla snapped, rubbing her temples in frustration. "Ah, fuck it. Crescent, use rock slide again!"
"Salamence!" Crescent sent a wave of rocks tumbling towards Sari. But this time she didn't use sucker punch. Instead, she relied on her agility to avoid the tumbling rocks, and raised her claws.
"Icicle crash," Lana ordered.
"Sneasel!" Sari created several massive icicles and launched them into the air. They flew like ground-to-air missiles towards the airborne dragon, and Crescent tried to evade them. But without the speed boost from dragon dance he wasn't fast enough to compete with Sari's speed, and he took several massive hits.
"Crescent, return," Darla said, calling Crescent back to his pokeball before he took any more damage. She should have done that while the two were distracted. Without being able to use status moves he wouldn't be able to match with that Sneasel. She needed a pokemon who was more suited for real speed.
And she had just the one in mind.
"Go, Midnight!" She shouted, sending out her Noivern next. With Midnight's speed, she should be able to match that Sneasel.
"I figured you'd use your Noivern next," Lana smirked. "She's the fastest pokemon you have, right?"
"You seem to know my team really well," Darla said, narrowing her eyes. "Why is that? I know you're a researcher, but… wait, you aren't stalking me, are you?"
"St-Stalking?!" Lana turned red. "Of course not, don't be ridiculous! I'm not some sort of degenerate like Blake Harker! All my knowledge is coming straight from a reliable source, Samarra!"
Ahh, that's right, Darla realized. Ayame's still under Samarra's sway. That means she knows a lot about my pokemon and what they're capable of since Olivia doesn't keep any secrets from her… and even worse, Ayame saw what we could do in the Phantom Cup… this is going to be a pain in the ass.
But it wasn't like there was anything she could do about it now.
"If you're aware of how fast Midnight is, then allow us to demonstrate her speed!" Darla shouted. "Midnight, use tailwind!"
"Noivern!" Midnight flapped her wings, sending a massive gust of wind across the battlefield. The force of that wind was strong enough to carry the Noivern forward, greatly increasing her speed and agility to where she was more than a match for Sari. She circled the Sneasel and opened her mouth wide, following the wind boost with a blast of flame.
"More flamethrowers, and you called my moves predictable?" Lana laughed. "Sari, you know what to do!"
"Sneasel!" Sari nodded. She leapt up into the air, jumping over the flames, much to Darla's surprise.
"That's quite a bit of jumping power," she scowled.
"It's not quite bounce or high jump kick, but it gets the job done," Lana nodded. "Now, for our specialty! Sari, use beat up!"
"Sneasel!" Sari raised her claw, and struck Midnight in the face.
"Beat up is a move where all the pokemon in my party lend Sari their power," Lana said. "And I've got a full team of six with me. Now, Sari! Take the strength of your allies and show Darla what we can do! Five more times!"
Sari's first strike was using her own power. But the next five came with the strength of the rest of Lana's team. Some were stronger than hers, others were weaker. But there were still six brutal attacks that stung Midnight, nearly knocking her out of the sky.
Sari flipped back and landed on the grass, holding her head up high, as Midnight swerved and tumbled, her face littered with scratches.
"Impressive, don't you think?" Lana smiled. "Beat up is one of my favorite moves. For just a single attack, it unleashes six strikes of varying power. Sure, the individual strength is low, but with the right team it can work wonders. Even a strong pokemon like your Noivern will succumb. That's the reason I like leading with Sari, so she can use her move to its full potential right out the gate. It just goes to show you the benefit of teamwork, and the value of working with others!"
"…You say that, but don't you have zero friends?" Kiana asked, raising her eyebrow.
"SHUT UP!" Lana exclaimed, once again embarrassed by her sister. "I have tons of friends thanks to Samarra! Loads of them now!"
She smiled. "And that's why we're going to win, Drake. Because we've got the strength of everyone on our side, working together towards a common goal, and you're just… you. A selfish idol who wants the spotlight all to herself."
Darla blinked.
"I have hundreds of fans though."
Lila nodded. "Thousands."
"…Urk…" That's right. When comparing raw numbers, a lot more people supported Darla than supported Lana. She turned red in embarrassment. "W-Well, it's not like that's going to help you win anyway, so don't get so cocky!" She snapped. "They're not even here!"
"But you're the one who brought it up in the first place, though," Lila mumbled.
"She's right though, it doesn't matter," Darla said, shaking her head. She stood tall, her red eyes glowing with resolve. "Who gives a crap about all those fans?"
"Uh, Darla, we're not supposed to say stuff like that in public," Lila hissed, looking around frantically to see if anyone caught that on a camera.
"But it's the truth," Darla shrugged, not taking her eyes off her opponent. "So what, you have Samarra's brainwashing mind controlled puppets on your side, that doesn't matter to me. And it doesn't matter how many cheering fans I have whenever I get up on stage. Like you said, they're not here anyway, so they're not going to help me win."
Darla shrugged her shoulders, but didn't look at all bothered by her assertion, which made Lana get tense.
"So what are you trying to say?" She asked.
"That it doesn't matter if that Samarra of yours has ten friends supporting you, or a hundred, or seventy thousand," Darla smirked. "The only person whose support I need to win is right here, and she's all I'll ever need."
Lila's eyes widened and she held her hands in front of her mouth.
"Wow, Darla! That was, like, the coolest thing you've ever said, ever! Who is it, huh?! Is it the Empress? It's totally her, right? Or maybe your cousin Reed? Oh wait, but she's not here right now… Giselle, maybe?"
Darla's face slowly got hot from shame.
Come on, are you serious right now?! She wanted to scream and bury her face in her hands. I said something that embarrassing and you didn't even get it?!
Sometimes she wondered if Lila really was just pretending to be stupid or if the act had become so ingrained in her that she really had turned into a complete fool.
Aww, Darla feels so confident in her victory because she has Lila cheering for her, that's just adorable! And it seems that becoming friends with Samarra has given Kiana the strength to express how she feels like everyone else… and she's really had to deal with a lot of stress this whole trip, hasn't she? Poor thing. Hopefully Samarra is a better friend than all those obnoxious kids.